SpaceX plans to try catching both Starship and its booster next month, with the aim of recovering the entire launch system for the first time, CEO Elon Musk said.
Musk made the announcement during the company's third-quarter earnings report. If it works, he said, it would be the first time an orbital launch vehicle has been fully recovered. "This is a profound technology milestone in the history of civilization consciousness," he said.
He also left room for failure. "Success is not guaranteed on these first flights, but I'd say it's more likely than not that this succeeds next flight," Musk said.
Some context helps here. Starship is the upper stage, the part that carries cargo to orbit, and the booster is the lower stage that gets it off the ground. Booster recovery is not new: SpaceX has been landing Falcon 9 boosters for years and has previously caught a Starship booster with its launch tower. Upper stages are the harder half, because they return from orbital speeds. Most rockets discard them, and the Space Shuttle, the best-known partial exception, still threw away its external tank.
The claim of a first is therefore credible on its face. The odds are Musk's own estimate, and his timelines have a history of running optimistic.
The phrasing is also worth a second look. He spoke of "these first flights" in the plural, then put his confidence on the "next flight" alone. That leaves open whether the plan is a single combined attempt or a sequence of tries, and the answer will shape how much a partial result counts as progress.